and with that i would like to get started i'd like to welcome you to today's events indigenous people's rights and the urgent need for technology to work for democracy which is a virtual uh official side event for the high-level political forum uh 2022. the high-level political forum is the main un platform on sustainable development it has a central role in the follow-up and review of implementation of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and its sustainable development goals all un member states as well as representatives from civil society organizations participate in the high-level political forum and it meets under the auspices of the un economic and special counsel today's event is focused on a critical issue which is how we can ensure that technology promotes and supports democracy for us the world continues to lack the full picture of marginalization and discrimination against indigenous people there is a dearth of disaggregated data and a critical gap in terms of tools and resources to engage comprehensively and securely as the human rights-based approach to development has shown if there's no disaggregated data on indigenous peoples and no effort to ensure they are included in digital transformations they will remain invisible their rights will continue to be disregarded in the context of implementing the sdgs and they will be left behind so in order to advance and to work toward the full implementation of the sdg framework and in particular when we discuss monitoring the five sdgs for review in this high-level political forum indigenous peoples must be engaged and today we're highlighting how indigenous peoples are engaged in a number of critical initiatives to use and develop technology to enhance and empower to them in order to claim their rights and document their situation in order to secure indigenous people's rights and ensure that they are not left behind and that their voices and demands are heard we must make technology work for democracy and human rights not against them the objective of this side event is to offer a platform for indigenous peoples themselves to share their challenges perspectives and aspirations regarding technology's role in promoting a more just equitable and peaceful global society now i would like to hand the floor over for opening remarks from the danish minister for development who has provided a written statement and a video statement for us good morning good afternoon and good evening everyone i'm delighted to be part of today's event first let me thank all of you organizations and partners and organizations in general for engaging in this important dialogue the world today is facing many crises democracy democracies are on the retreat and human rights are under attack on top we face major climate and environmental crisis indigenous people play a crucial role in addressing these challenges they are on the forefront when they defend their land water and natural resources often working onto great danger denmark has a long history of safeguarding the rights of indigenous people and we will continue to do so we need to keep on actively promoting protecting and defending the rights of indigenous people especially as new digital technologies pose new challenges and at the same time new opportunities with digital technologies we can bring in the voices of marginalized groups like indigenous people to promote a more democratic and just world and used in the right way digital technologies can assist indigenous people to claim their rights and engage in advocacy in new and effective ways to harness the opportunities that technologists offer denmark has launched the multi-stakeholder initiative called tech for democracy a platform that makes tech work for democracy and human rights in the digital area indigenous peoples themselves are key in ensuring that respect of the their human rights with the help of new technologies indigenous people can bring expertise about climate solutions and biodiversity con conservation to the table solutions which can help enable a just transition that leaves no one behind we must continue taking action together across sectors and across the globe to find concrete solutions for a more open inclusive and democratic digital future thank you for your attention i wish you all a fruitful discussion i truly look forward to learn about the outcomes of this very important dialogue thank you we would like to thank the danish minister for the development cooperation mr fleming mueller mortensen for his opening remarks and also for providing the statement we would also like to thank the danish government for their continued solidarity and commitment supporting indigenous peoples as well as for the initiative of tech for democracy which is critical to ensuring that technologies work to support democracy and do not work against it now i would like to give the floor to ms kiara adamo kiara has more than 20 years of european commission experience working on human rights and democracy migration and human development related policies particularly equality policies both within and outside the european union kiara is the acting director for human development migration governance and the peace directorate in the dg international cooperation and development dg indpa the european mission kiara it is a pleasure to welcome you and to have you here with us today and we're very grateful to turn the floor to you for your remark thank you david and thank you for the invitation to this very important side event in the context of the high level policy political forum on sustainable development i will start by saying that technology is neither good nor bad it is the way it is designed and the use we make of it which can make it a tool for democracy or actually against democracy a tool to leave no one behind and and be more inclusive and amplify voices or a tool used or misused to threaten those same voices so hence the importance of human-centric digitalizations and this is really the approach that we have been taking at the european union uh only this week our european parliament has endorsed a landmark legislation we call it the digital service act uh and i want to mention it very briefly here today because it really puts fundamental rights of people in the digital space at the center it is about transparency of algorithm avoiding bias making sure that people have access to remedy and due diligence externally of course uh our action translates um by as you mentioned striving to promote a human rights-based approach to to to our cooperation to what we do and this starts really by ensuring that digitalization is not only benefiting the few but really benefits all therefore it really starts from basic with access to digital service and this is really paramount also looking at acute inequalities and socio-economic marginalizations of groups and communities in societies including indigenous people so connecting people and internet access really must be a priority and is a priority of our global gateway corporation secondly very much in line with the danish minister it's about promoting inclusive society so helping citizen indigenous people in particular to claim and protect their rights share information cooperate with or hold government into account by utilizing digital means and digitalization finally can really act as a catalyzer to sustainable development notably on the protection of indigenous people's rights such as climate change biodiversity or human rights and environmental due diligence and we have many examples of the of these out there uh combining satellite imaginary with indigenous knowledge to biodiversity rich areas subject to deforestation or poaching technology can also enable a close cooperation with indigenous and local communities to collect data about climate change impacts and for instance we are doing so by funding the regreening africa program really to optimize tree planting and natural regeneration and uh last but not least we must not forget the importance of technology to preserve and revitalize indigenous cultural heritage and promote intercultural dialogue so for us the indigenous navigator is a prime example of how technology to co-creation with indigenous people really can make a difference and we consider the indigenous navigators our flagship project on indigenous people's right because it gives indigenous community a voice a hand hi to advanced toward full implementation of the rights in the sdg framework the navigator empowers the indigenous community as active users as really the protagonist observing and respecting the local context localization very important it's also a framework that promotes strategic partnerships for instance with national human rights organizations with with national statistical office and it ensure data protection very important by upholding the community consent when handling uh data and sensitive data so it really uses uh and exemplifies international standards and rights-based frameworks so for these we are very happy to support this navigator and local capacity building to ensure sustainability of this digital digital component and as you see again digital technology are not the panacea to sustainable development but they can become a very important a critical tool if we put uh people at the center and if they are used in the right way uh with this i very much like to thank you david for having given me the floor and my colleague sebastian porter is going to remain there for the question answer thank you thank you so much kiara and thank you for highlighting some of these really critical roles that technology can play thank you for the important remarks for the continued commitment and solitary solidarity of the european union with indigenous peoples around the globe um i think you're absolutely right that technology has a crucial role to play from enabling communication to supporting digital services and enhancing the ability of civil society to do its part to ensure that human rights are respected as well as building capacities and democratizing in a way the ability to document and to advocate for rights whether they be indigenous people's rights or rights general so we thank you very much for these remarks we thank you for the continued support and commitment um in the empowerment and amplification of indigenous people's own self-determined campaigns and we also thank you for joining us today and we look forward to having sebastian in the panel later with this i would like to now turn the floor over to jorge aguero jorge is the president of cervindi which is an organization committed to promote intercultural dialogue on the issues of indigenous peoples rights and ecological interests jorge thank you for joining us today to discuss aprendo conservindi and e-learning platforms being developed by indigenous peoples the floor is yours before we open please a note to the attendees that interpretation is available so please use the interpretation function to select your language please take the floor is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] amazonia [Music] foreign aprendo conservindi foreign [Music] is it [Music] is modulos [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] when is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is multiplication [Music] thank you so much jorge for this very powerful intervention and for sharing with us aprendo con trevindi and the very important work that you've been doing in developing it and ensuring that it's accessible and useful and meets the needs of indigenous peoples themselves especially those who are across the digital divide and don't have the necessary infrastructure or ability to connect to electricity into internet as needed i think that this is really a critical training tool for both indigenous women men and youth in latin america as you've said it is tailor-made for participants at the community level um and it's really essential as a model for inspiration and replication for indigenous peoples from all regions of the world who are struggling on how to engage remote communities in both advocacy but also in rights defense rights sensitization so thank you once again jorge truly an excellent and vital platform particularly as we have heard yesterday here at the high-level political forum the extensive challenges and progress that is yet to be achieved uh in regard to the sdg on education i would like to now turn the floor and introduced miss joji carino she has been an active campaigner and advocate over the past 35 years on indigenous people's human rights at community national and international levels she is the senior policy advisor and former director of forest people's program in the uk and she is the convener of the indigenous navigator consortium she has also worked as an indigenous policy advisor and team leader of the indigenous peoples and biodiversity program peptaba foundation indigenous peoples international center for policy research and education from 2004-2013 she is an environmental and development educator and researcher with expertise on indigenous knowledge and traditional occupations cultural and biological diversity joji we're very glad to have you with us today and we hear from you regarding the indigenous navigator yes the floor is yours um thanks very much david um okay so uh warm greetings to all participants i thank the organizers of this important webinar for giving me this opportunity to highlight issues of democracy and indigenous peoples the importance of human rights monitoring and the use of the indigenous navigator a community-based tool for supporting indigenous evidence and action as we all know indigenous peoples have been subjected to 500 years of colonialism overlaid by modern economic development and state building which have pushed us to be among the poorest and marginalized in the many countries where we live these social inequalities are indicators of serious democratic deficits in contemporary societies requiring urgent attention in recent years the united nations has addressed this time systemic problems by adopting international standards for the respect protection and promotion of indigenous people's rights and well-being a set out in the un declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples the sustainable development goals and also the outcome document of the world conference on indigenous peoples which looked at the implementation of the un declaration correspondingly there exist international mechanisms such as the human rights council and its other bodies the expert mechanism on the rights of indigenous peoples and the un permanent forum and other human rights special procedures which provide oversight functions and report on state compliance with these human rights obligations but all of these international instruments require robust data information and reporting systems in order to see whether or not the outcomes are good for the rights holders themselves so for indigenous peoples as the rights holders are there corresponding mechanisms to monitor implementation of government obligations and to report about our own exercise of our fundamental rights and freedoms [Music] the indigenous navigator is a community-based monitoring tool developed by and for indigenous peoples to track the progress in the implementation of global commitments on indigenous people's rights this international instruments need to act interact with local systems of reporting and data generation by indigenous peoples as the primary sources of information and knowledge so uh the partners engaged in the indigenous navigator processes make use of national and community questionnaires linked to core human rights indicators to make qualitative and quantitative measurements about the enjoyment of our rights the responses to these questionnaires are reported through an online portal including visual representations and also available in this portal are relevant tools resources and guidance for use by more indigenous peoples organizations and communities as they so decide so now i'd like to make a few reflections on using technology to work for democracy democracy is strengthened through the liberative processes where peoples and citizens collectively discuss the status of their rights so uh the indigenous participants using uh the national and community questionnaires highlight this face-to-face process as highly effective for human rights education and social learning so here we actually have a face-to-face dimension which is the traditional way that indigenous peoples learn from each other but also complementing these democratic processes are open access tools and resources made available through the indigenous navigator portal and this can be used by other interested indigenous peoples and communities as well as decision makers governments and others who are very interested in supporting indigenous people's rights and monitoring the actual implementation of these rights and so through this portal community data information and stories are made globally visible and this is very much valued by the communities because oftentimes what is asked is how can we make our situations more visible to uh decision makers but also to all others to build global solidarity therefore this information contributes to greater transparency of existing mechanisms for monitoring the sdgs and indigenous people's rights including complementing voluntary national reports so these interlinkages between social and political processes and appropriate technologies are essential for the renewal of democracy during these critical times so i have made those reflections on the use of the indigenous navigator but i also want to make a broader reflection about digitalization as now the globalizing platform for um societies and a lot of um areas of work we all know that indigenous peoples are marginalized there is a big digital divide and whilst we say that these technologies are open for all certainly it is not open to those indigenous peoples who don't have internet connections who don't have electricity who don't have good wi-fi connections and oftentimes these are more expensive for remote communities so um let us interrogate its openness for all because there are still a lot who are actually excluded secondly i want to reflect on the social process of social learning and face-to-face um learning because that is the essence of building democracy so sometimes we join the internet and we feel that we are connected and we feel that we are participating however this type of digital connection has to also have the social component because that is what will build social movements i have experienced families talking and eating in the table but everyone is looking at their internet and young people who now learn via the internet and no longer from the elders and consider the elders as um and even traditional knowledge as outmoded so let us see how technologies and digitalization [Music] can possibly displace or even give us the illusion of full democratic participation whereas it actually also has its uh limitations and these are really the big tools used by globalization to manage economies to manage concepts and to manage social space so i think we also need to bear this in mind when we are examining of course we want to use technologies of course we don't want to be left behind but let us also see some of its limitations and indeed some of the risks that it poses for indigenous peoples and real social engagement and movement building thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to make my contribution over to you david thank you so much joji and thank you for this very in-depth review but also the critical reflection that is so essential for us to discuss we can't just talk about the positives of technologies and addressing the issues of digital divide we really need to invest the time to have that reflection as you've said to really discuss what the risks and what the benefits are and to ensure that there's proper not only education but material available for people to safely engage in digital spaces as they are open i'd also like to thank you for presenting the indigenous navigator it is truly a crucial tool for promoting protecting and defending the rights of indigenous peoples and for documenting the implementation gap not only that uh in regard to the duty of states but also in regard to sensitization for the first time um in some communities about indigenous people's rights i would now like to turn uh to our final panelist mr miguel vargas delgado he is the director of sejes center who is joining us today to speak about the cpta el centro de planification territory autonomica the cpta and segis are based in bolivia miguel thank you for joining us today thank you for taking the time to be here with us um and we're very excited to hear more about this mission place the floor is yours an experience is an instrument [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] an application is identification a [Music] for example is thank you very much miguel and victoria for this really critical presentation of cpta but also of the essential work that you are doing and that is being done in bolivia in safeguarding indigenous rights as well as using technology and gis satellite monitoring to provide actionable intelligence and information to indigenous communities and to defenders in order to document violations and abuses as well as to protect their lands and territories i think that um it is absolutely an essential initiative and we're very grateful to have had the opportunity to have you here and to have you presented our final speaker of the day is the united nations special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples mr francisco kali say mr khali say is maya from guatemala with experience of defending the rights of indigenous peoples both in guatemala and at the level of the united nations and the oas he was founder and member of different indigenous organizations in guatemala as well as ambassador of guatemala to the federal republic of germany and was president of the committee for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination the treaty body from which he was elected for four consecutive periods he was also the director of human rights at the ministry of foreign affairs in guatemala and was a member of the presidential commission against discrimination and racism against indigenous peoples guatemala jose francisco cali say we are very grateful to have you with us today and to have you um with us to talk about the importance of technology in generating disaggregated data in indigenous people's own initiatives and their self-determined engagement technologies please the floor is here thank you very much david and i will speak in spanish uh doing that there are a lot of latin american indigenous people who are listening who are watching us so i apologize and i know that this interpretation so that's why a a [Music] is foreign artificial a technology [Music] foreign is is foreign [Music] a is is a moment is uh [Music] is is foreign a thank you so much francisco and thank you for really this i mean really critical reflections it's so important to look at both positive and negative and to enter this space with our eyes wide open to not only the shine of what is exciting and what could be but also to be very aware of the concerns and the challenges that are raised when entering the digital space particularly around artificial intelligence machine learning and biases racism that is in the coding of those algorithms as you've said i think this is really a crucial thing to address and i think it fits very well with today's event because it's not only about solutions that indigenous peoples are bringing but also highlighting some of those high-level concerns so i think your airport example is also very important because it makes it so tangible to understand what it is that we're talking about when we talk about the possible impacts or implications so thank you so much for sharing that with us as you said technology may serve to support indigenous peoples and their struggles and to give them a platform and to amplify their communication or it may serve to control indigenous peoples instead of advancing their self-determination it could be used to control people's movements their activities to create profiles and track their um their fundamental rights and violate them particularly as it comes to protest we're seeing this happening now this is a problem that's being faced and it's something that certainly needs to be addressed i think before we open the q a i would like to ask one more thing of you francisco which is if you could tell us a little bit about your forthcoming reports actually i didn't talk about my report because it was an issue on this uh in this topic but anyway uh as uh as you are asking this uh for this year i will present to the human rights council a report that is going to talk about what is the role of indigenous women to keep the scientific knowledge of indigenous peoples there i have i can tell you that i can tell everybody that i have been fighting or struggling against that indigenous people doesn't have scientific knowledge they they they the majority of the people they are saying indigenous people have a traditional knowledge a conceptual knowledge and what i'm saying is probably there is a different way of seeing the scientific knowledge but it's a scientific knowledge that indigenous people have been keeping from generation to generations and that's why in the pandemic of covet 19th many indigenous peoples they they have zero zero contagious people in their communities zero i was in peru uh four weeks you know a month and a half ago and i went with the ashwar people and the assure people they they using their right of cell determination they decide to close their borders not allowing anybody to enter without the control of sanitation so i think that that is very important to take in account because everything everything is coming together or parallel with the right of indigenous people of cell determination and what i i noticed there is that they as i said they have zero cases of kobe 19 and they explained me why they have this and they were saying the elder people they were saying we don't have any any case because the jungle is our house the jungle is our supermarket the jungle is our pharmacy the jungle is everything for us so with with very few words what they were what they were saying is that they they their reward is the jungle if they are taking care of the jungle and the role that the indigenous women are playing in this is very important so that's why so that's why i think so that's why i think that and that confirmed me why i decided to to to launch this this a thematic report to the human rights council on the role of women keeping the scientific knowledge of indigenous people but also the majestic society that we are living today is not allowing also to talk about that what role the women are playing in this moment so that's why it's very important and i think that uh that is the the objective of my study to be presented in september to the the human rights council the second report will be that the obligation that the state and international institutions have to respect indigenous people's right when they are creating protected areas why i'm talking about why i decide to speak about this issue as everybody knows all the protected area has uh like [Music] sometimes not sometimes all the times it's matching the indigenous territories so it's overlapping indigenous territories but the problem is that it's not that that it showed that indigenous people have been able to keeping a biodiversity in that territory the problem is that the point of the view that the the government has on creating that that that protected area for many governments means and they have the idea of 250 years ago when they are starting the creation of this protected area that the prosthetic area has to be by themselves with no people living inside that protected area but when you are seeing which areas which territory has been a created as a protected area you will see that it's indigenous territories how can be possible that indigenous people have been keeping that area in that way and now they are going to be keep away they are forcing to be away from that territory we have the example of the the korean people in thailand uh they were killed they were persecuted whether there was a rape there was massacre that took place even that we as a special reporter and other institution we show the international international a community that that has been happening that has been taking place they they decide that anyway they are going to create a protected area but the thing is that after that they are going to give this protected area to a private company that is going to create a park where you can organize as the so-called a green tourism so that is the problem and that's why i decide also and i wanted to to to give those elements to the general assembly to to um reflect or or that that that if we wanted to create that protected area we have to take in account 100 indigenous people who are living there not only on how we are going to create a protected area but also management the co-management of that protected area so that is the objective baby so thank you very much thank you so much francisco and we're really looking forward to both of those reports i think they are absolutely critical and particularly this second report i think fits very well with our first question so now i would like to open the q a the q a for our first question is from el raya musa kaki to what extent can the technology be used to monitor indigenous territories from a distance especially monitoring forests against deforestation activity and i would open uh say either miguel if you feel comfortable answering with cpta or francisco if you would like to well i i will ask miguel if he can answer that question because he is the one who is have more more knowledge on this technology is um [Music] thank you very much miguel and i would also add uh because there's a follow-up question from el raya about any name software that we could use i would say that if you're looking at deforestation particularly or forest youth change or land change in regard to canopy disturbances then there are a number of free projects which have been developed i've put some of them in the chat too but one which is globally available and has quite a bit of support to it and it also has a small grants facility attached to it is global forest watch and their mobile app forest watcher another one that you could look into would be arcgis and particularly their collector tool um that allows you to go out and ground truth validate disturbances but you could also look at free gis tools like quantum gis or qgis which will allow you to make base la maps and do some some baseline analysis of canopy disturbance there are also scripts that have been developed through the european union and their joint research lab that look at canopy disturbance using the google earth engine database this would also allow you to do an analysis over time a forest change and look at land use change cutting of new roads or or deforestation illegal logging and mining and there are a number of very good projects that are working with indigenous peoples and that are led in some cases also by indigenous peoples that are doing exactly that those tools so i would add that to to close the question but please feel free to follow up if you have more in the chat our next question is um and apologize i do apologize for the pronunciation from um and he is asking that today many of the sharing done today is not known to millions of indigenous peoples around the world our knowledge systems and global work being done are only done by a few people and organization how can we ensure using a digital database that all 476 million indigenous peoples who are not able to come to the un and other platforms are able to access um so that they are able to access such valuable knowledge which is empowering them uh greetings from the indigenous women of manipur in indo-burma border so i will leave this question open um but i will also just say that the number 476 million indigenous peoples is actually a lower bound estimate and uh we actually estimate that there are many more indigenous peoples around the world would anyone like to take this question i think it would have been best suited to jorge but unfortunately he's had to leave us he had to catch a flight so perhaps we can follow up in writing later unless someone feels that they can take uh joji um yes there is a strong move to develop indigenous media so um we highlighted for example uh not just um media for education but community radio uh even community television and um the simpler apps for example in the among networks in the philippines facebook continues to be used um what's up for um small for messaging but presently we're focused on discussing uh digital platforms i think we also need to talk about the diversity of technologies including more traditional technologies that are having innovations right so i know that indigenous networks and organizations reach so many more people than those who are currently engaged in digital media so for example in asia the asia indigenous people's path brings together national federations and uh women's networks and within those countries there are also local organizations so uh first those are also means of becoming connected in place as well as these networks are then developing social media as well as digital media that is really adapted to the needs of their members so um yes indigenous newsletters and media i know that quite a lot of these exist and this is our own way of um disseminating information and keeping um everyone informed so um [Music] again what i'm wanting to stress here is the combination of our tried and tested means of linking with each other and socializing and building solidarity which is of course very much complemented by the use of new technologies but of all of the experiences that were currently presented to us it is actually those that are directly developed controlled and managed by indigenous peoples that are making a big big success right so for example the community mapping and um monitoring systems that are being done by sages these are the types of technology use of technology that are certainly most useful so sometimes the vision of a complete digital database for more than 500 million indigenous peoples that is a little bit um disconnected from some of our realities of course we don't want people to be excluded but at the same time we need to make judgments about the combinations of technologies that will really work to serve our priorities and our communities thank you thank you so much joji i'm afraid that we're just about out of time we only have two minutes left so i would like to begin the closing of the meeting i would like to thank each of you for your presentations for taking the time today uh to join us and to present the absolutely amazing work that you are doing um in the support and defense of indigenous peoples and indigenous peoples rights um a special thanks to the ministry of foreign affairs of denmark for co-organizing this event as well as to the european union and the european commission dg indpa for their support and participation we would also like to thank our indigenous panelists and and um projects including miguel vargas from seiges jorge aguerto and georgie carrino and we would also like to thank you francisco kali for your participation today as the u.n special rapporteur it has been a pleasure to join all of you to hear from you and look forward to working with you thank you um very much to all of you to all the panelists for your excellent presentations i think with that we will close the meeting and um you
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